


Answer 1529

by project_break



Category: U-KISS
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-02
Updated: 2014-07-02
Packaged: 2018-02-07 02:30:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1881729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/project_break/pseuds/project_break
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A cruel prank gets Eli the attention he wanted from Soohyun, but he discovers something he never expected in the process.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Answer 1529

Eli tears down the hallway, not waiting to hear how long it takes for the door to Kevin’s room to slam shut, or turning around to see whether or not he’s being pursued. Later on, he’ll swear, hand over heart, that there were permanent grooves in the carpet from where his sneakers ripped it up, and that clouds of long-settled hotel dust puffed up behind him as he ran. For now, though, he whips around corners, hurtles up a staircase and then down one, nearly bowls over an older couple and yells an apology to them over his shoulder, and then goes in hard for the stretch that leads up to Room 1529.

Just before he plants his face against the door, Eli skids to a stop and fumbles the key card out of his right-hand pocket and holds it against the pad. The moment after it unlocks with a dull, metallic clank, he’s turned the handle. A second later, he’s leaning against the inside of the closed door, breathing heavily, and patting his other pocket to make sure that his prize is still with him. The television that was playing a movie when he entered suddenly pauses.

“Uh,” Soohyun says, leaning forward so that he can see Eli around the bathroom wall which blocks most of the room’s view of the entryway. “Hi… How did you get in?”

Eli takes a second to turn around and look through the peep hole to make sure that he wasn’t followed. Once he’s relatively certain that Kevin isn’t lurking outside the door, spying, he puts the security chain across the door and takes a step toward the inside of the room.

“Your room is a lot nicer than mine,” Eli whines at Soohyun, ignoring his question completely. He kicks off his shoes next to the end of the bed and crosses to the window. “You have a city view, too? Man. Not fair. Kiseop and I have to stare at the side of a water tower.”

Soohyun is still looking at him in confusion. “Did I leave the door open? Did our manager give you the key to this room? Seriously, how did you get in here?”

Eli tosses the key card onto the bedspread in front of Soohyun’s crossed legs, and throws himself onto the unclaimed bed in the room as Soohyun picks the card up and examines it. “Where’d you get it from?” Soohyun asks.

“Kevin’s room.”

“Why does Kevin have a copy?”

“He doesn’t,” Eli says, grinning. 

“Eli…” Soohyun picks up a pillow and hurls it across the room at Eli’s face. Eli ducks, but it turns out that he doesn’t have to: Soohyun is a terrible shot. The pillow sails over Eli’s knees and hits the wall with a soft _whump_. Soohyun flops onto his back with a groan, legs still crossed and posture awkward, and he turns his head to glare at Eli’s smug smirk. “Don’t make me come over there,” he threatens weakly. 

Soohyun’s sporting dark circles under his eyes, the results of lack of sleep and mascara that the cold cream didn’t quite get off his skin. He looks sort of pathetic, so Eli takes pity on him for a moment. “Our manager was in Kevin’s room earlier and he left it there, so I took it.”

“And why did you take it?” Soohyun asks, looking very much like he’s not sure he actually wants to hear the answer.

“Because I stole something from Kevin and I needed to hide. The first place he’d look for me would be in my room, and Kiseop would sell me out without even thinking about it.”

“I have a sneaking suspicion that your kleptomania is going to be the topic of the next lecture we get from management,” Soohyun sighs, giving Eli a pointed look. “And if that’s the case, I’m going to make you room with Kevin every time we stay in a hotel for the next two months, so I hope whatever you took is worth it.”

“Isn’t it your job to tell me I shouldn’t be stealing from Kevin anyway?” Eli asks, raising an eyebrow at him.

“I don’t even know what you stole,” Soohyun points out. “How can I tell you off if I don’t know the exact nature of the crime?” He’s trying to keep a serious face and failing pretty miserably, and Eli grins at him.

“You want to see it?” Eli asks, patting the small object in his left pocket.

“ _It_?” Soohyun says, tone going greasy. “I mean, yes. Obviously. Please. But is this really why you broke into my room, Eli? Are you that desperate?”

Eli eyes him. “Well, now I’ve changed my mind. Do you want to see what I took from Kevin instead?”

Soohyun pretends to consider this with all his leaderly stoicism, and then: “Of course I do, get over here.”

Eli hops off the empty bed and plops himself down next to Soohyun, giving him a poke in the side. “Move over,” he says. “Give me room.” Soohyun groans theatrically, but he manages to shift himself to the side, and Eli sits up against the pillows before stretching out and digging in his pocket. Soohyun watches carefully, and is surprised when what Eli shows him is a small, faded, grey flip phone.

“That’s not Kevin’s phone,” Soohyun feels obligated to point out.

“Oh,” Eli says. “But you’re wrong.” He flips the phone open, toggles over to the text messages, and then places the phone solemnly into Soohyun’s hand.

Soohyun stares, unable to help himself as he scrolls down through the exchange of messages, feeling increasingly guilty but unable to stop reading. “Eli…” he says softly, “you shouldn’t have taken this from him.”

“But,” Eli’s adrenaline high seems to slide away from him like cold water off glass, “it’s funny, isn’t it? Some of that stuff is just so gushy. And come on: a secret cell phone for texting his secret—”

“It’s personal. God, he must be scared sick that it’s out of his sight.” Soohyun tears his eyes away from the screen and snaps the phone shut on itself. He hands it back to Eli. “Don’t tell him you let me see it, okay? Just give it back to him when he asks for it.”

“Soohyun—”

“Eli.”

Eli puts the phone in his pocket, sighs and leans back against the pillows. “Do you think he’s really upset?”

“You know he is. You know how protective he is over his personal life. How did you even end up seeing it to begin with?”

“He was digging in his bag to show me this scarf he bought at the night market, and it fell out on the floor, so I kind of, um…”

“You picked it up, went through it, and then teased him about it,” Soohyun guesses.

“Uh, yeah.”

“And then when he tried to get it back from you, you ran away with it. And then you showed it to me.”

Eli runs a hand back through his hair. “How much of an asshole am I?”

“An incredible asshole. I can’t even begin to tell you,” Soohyun tells Eli, glancing over at him wearily. “You’d better hope Jaeseop doesn’t find out, because I’m going to overlook it if he comes after you. You’ll deserve it.”

“Yeah.” There’s silence between them for a few long minutes. Soohyun rests his hands on his stomach and closes his eyes, and Eli stares at the ceiling and fights the urge to take a bite at a hangnail on the edge of his thumb. He glances over at Soohyun, who looks so peaceful, and he wonders how he’s managed to screw up even this.

“Why aren’t you angrier with me?” Eli asks. Soohyun doesn’t answer. He doesn’t even move. There’s no indication that he heard. “Soohyun,” Eli tries again, “why aren’t you mad at me?”

Soohyun gives an awkward little shrug but doesn’t open his eyes. “You’ll give it back to him and apologise. He’ll freeze you out for a bit and you’ll get upset and then you’ll get over it.”

“But don’t you want to punish me for it? Aren’t you pissed at me for violating Kevin’s personal things or trust or whatever?”

“Eli,” Soohyun opens his eyes and looks over at him, finally. “Do you _want_ me to be mad at you?”

Eli wants many things, but eye contact isn’t one of them. He brings his thumb to his mouth and worries the nail with his teeth, staring at the silent television screen at the foot of the bed. 

“I don’t know,” he says, after a moment. 

“You don’t know?” Soohyun asks, and Eli feels more than sees him shifting, sitting up against the headboard.

“No…” Eli’s beginning to wonder why he ever thought this was a good idea in the first place. He should have known it was never going to work. 

“Did you really take my room key from Kevin’s?” Soohyun asks, slowly. Eli debates lying to him, but he knows that he’ll find out the truth eventually.

“No. I asked the manager if I could borrow it.”

“And the phone?” 

“I didn’t lie about that.”

“Why?” Soohyun asks, concerned, and Eli – after what has seemed like weeks of Soohyun completely ignoring his existence – feels suddenly smothered by his focused attention. “Why would you do that?”

“You never talk to me anymore,” Eli blurts out before his brain catches up to his mouth. As soon as he says it he tries to calculate how quickly he can get out and away from this.

“Huh?”

“Nothing,” Eli says. He sits up on the bed and swings his legs over the side. “It’s… whatever. Forget I said anything. I’ll get out of your way.”

“No. Hey, stop.” Soohyun’s hand closes around his forearm, and Eli is trapped. It’s like some stupid scene from one of those maudlin dramas that Kevin is forever trying to make out like he doesn’t watch, and it’s not something that’s supposed to happen in real life. But Eli is outside of reality, and the feeling of Soohyun’s hand on his arm puts him in suspended animation, the desire to flee aching in his muscles, forced to stay still by some unintelligible thickening of the air.

“Let go of me,” Eli says hoarsely, mentally halfway to his room. “I have to leave.”

“No, you don’t.” Soohyun’s showing no signs of loosening his grip. “You’re angry with me, and we have to talk about it.”

“I’m not angry, Soohyun. I swear. Let go.” It’s true: he’s not feeling angry. He’s feeling toxic. There’s a sick kind of panic that started to build up in him when Soohyun asked him directly about what he wanted. He’s been trying to hold it down, but it’s breaking against his ribcage and making him feel ill and all he wants to do is escape.

“Just tell me what’s wrong!” Soohyun pleads, and Eli’s frayed last nerve snaps. 

He stares at the wall and tries to keep his voice from shaking, tries to keep his voice low. “You don’t talk to me anymore. It’s like I’m not even _fucking_ around. I wanted to force you to notice me, but you apparently don’t want to do that even now. You don’t even care enough to get pissed off, so whatever. I don’t care. I really don’t. I’m done. Whatever. Just let me go and I’ll get out of your way.” 

Soohyun does not let go. Eli doesn’t try to make him.

“You think I don’t care?” Soohyun says, voice thick with emotion where Eli can’t see. “Seriously? Are you kidding me? Just because I’m not with you every hour of every day, it doesn’t mean—”

“You look right through me!” Eli yells suddenly, turning around and facing him for the first time, furious. “Don’t try to tell me I’m being needy.” 

“I don’t—” Soohyun’s eyes are wide and his mouth is open like he’s shocked, eyes a little glassy. Ordinarily that would be enough to make Eli stop, to sit still and shut up, if not apologise. But he’s too riled up now. He can’t stop it. He has to get it out of his system.

“Don’t tell me you don’t do it, Soohyun. You do. Okay? So you don’t care. You don’t really want me here and I don’t want to be here, so let the fuck go of me and we can both be happy.”

To Eli’s immense surprise, Soohyun _does_ let go. It happens so fast that Eli barely registers it at first. One moment his hand is almost going numb from the pressure on his wrist, and the next there’s nothing. 

“I’m sorry,” Soohyun says quietly. He’s not crying – thank _god_ he’s not crying, because Eli wouldn’t know what to do if he was – but he looks beaten, like he’s heard too much and it stuck him in tender places, sharp. “I didn’t think you would notice.”

“You’ve been doing it on _purpose_?” That’s a surprise. In a haze of confusion, Eli temporarily forgets that his goal is to get out of the room. All the time that Soohyun has been passing him over, Eli has never once thought that he was doing it intentionally. “Why? Why would you do that to me?”

“It’s not important,” Soohyun says, and he looks away.

“Like hell it’s not important. You’ve been ignoring me on purpose? What, did I do something to you?” Eli rubs absently at his wrist as he speaks, unsure what to do with his hands. The toxic feeling in him has burned itself out, and he’s left unsure and hurt in the wake of Soohyun’s admission.

“It’s not your fault, Eli. I promise. It’s just me being stupid. Everything will be back to normal tomorrow. You can leave now. I’m not going to stop you.”

Eli almost takes the offer. There’s a significant part of him which doesn’t want to stick around and pry for answers, that just wants to get back to his room and his temporary bed and to sleep through the night so that in the morning everything is magically okay again. But no. Soohyun’s been ignoring him, deliberately, for going on three weeks and he won’t tell Eli why. Eli is owed an explanation.

“Tell me.” He doesn’t reach out to touch like Soohyun did. He doesn’t even try to make him look. He just asks, and he hopes that Soohyun will listen.

“You really don’t want to know. Trust me. Let it go.”

“I deserve an answer.”

Soohyun doesn’t argue with that, and Eli knows that he’s finally won. Now all that’s left is to find out what his prize is.

When he turns back to Eli, Soohyun has carefully arranged his expression into one of blank neutrality. It’s not a good sign. Of course, Eli hadn’t been expecting any reason Soohyun was ignoring him to be good, but it turns his stomach all the same.

“You think I’ve been ignoring you because I don’t care,” Soohyun starts, softly. “But you’re wrong about that. I’ve been ignoring you because I do care. Too much. And I decided to put space between us for both of our sakes. I thought you’d never notice the difference.”

“The fuck do you mean?” Eli bursts out, incredulous, harsh against the quiet plainness of Soohyun’s confession. Of all the things he might have expected Soohyun to say, that isn’t even close. 

“Like I said—”

“You care about me _too much_? Like what?” 

“Like I love you, Eli. Okay?” Soohyun’s expression might be shuttered, but his skin is flushed and he’s subdued. 

“Like you lo—” Eli stops himself. He can’t go down that road. He backtracks. “That’s bullshit. You expect me to believe you?”

“Eli…”

“You can’t treat me like that and then feed me some fake excuse and expect me to j—” Eli stops talking abruptly, because Soohyun’s hand is suddenly against his skin, palm against Eli’s jaw, fingers brushing behind his ear. And Soohyun’s face… he’s suddenly so much closer. “What are you doing?” Eli asks shakily, his heart picking up speed.

Soohyun doesn’t reply. He watches Eli’s expression as Eli watches him, and Eli notices a change. The carefully cultivated mask of non-emotion is still covering most of Soohyun’s face, but his eyes are exposed and something in them is afraid. In Soohyun’s eyes, Eli feels the same stomach dropping, heart-shocking jitters that are wracking his own body. 

Eli knows what’s going to come next. He thinks that he should stop it. He thinks that he should pull away and walk out and leave. But he lied by omission, too, when he hadn’t explained that the reason Soohyun ignoring him made him feel sick wasn’t because he felt left out of a family, or unappreciated as a member of the group.

Eli closes his eyes when Soohyun leans in, and when lips touch his cheek, soft, something in him breaks: his façade.

“Just that?” he asks, and Soohyun doesn’t move away. He hovers there, cheek to cheek with Eli, breathing warm against his neck.

“I’m not lying,” Soohyun murmurs, and it’s not a reply, but it is. It’s an answer to the question that’s slamming around the inside of Eli’s head to the beat of his pulse. _Could he actually love me?_ It’s incredibly surreal. It’s nothing like the way Eli expected his hastily concocted plan of an afternoon to end up. Soohyun is answering him – has answered him – and his answer is _yes._

Eli pulls ever so slightly away, feels the hitch in Soohyun’s breath in his own chest, and feels it smooth out, soothes it, when he tips Soohyun’s chin up toward him. He brushes back stray strands of hair from eyes that betray everything, their attention focused solely on him. 

And then Eli kisses him.


End file.
